Earl Cooks Horseradish Cheddar Mashed Potatoes & Microwave Pot Roast - A Review

Recently, while shopping at Walmart, I came across two items that I hoped would be tasty building blocks for a quick weeknight meal (1  a "chef inspired" beef pot roast and (2 Horseradish Cheddar Mashed Potatoes. I was only partly right, and partly very wrong!

It is tough to ruin beef pot roast, but Walmart's own Great Value frozen beef pot roast is horrible! I should have read the label closer...why?

1. It only had microwave instructions. I don't like proteins that are microwaved. They never taste right and the consistency is often ruined. I thought there would be alternate instructions, but there were none.
2. The meat had been injected with a 20% solution of I-don't-know-what but that means it is really 20% less meat and therefore 20% more expensive. That means that roast beef that is $5/lb is really $6/lb! And this solution is probably something to tenderize (bad omen) and flavor (again, bad). Even a lesser cut of beef is good when properly seasoned and cooked.

 Now for the potatoes. They were okay. Anyone who has read my blog know that I think packaged potaoes are fine...usually. Idahoan are consistently the best, so I normally stick with theirs, but the attraction of cheddar AND horseradish made me buy Walmart's premium store brand Sam's Choice™. These I might even buy again, but not soon. I think I could add my own horseradish and cheddar and get a better result. I ended up adding a nice sharp cheddar to the little cheddar they had.

The photo above shows the roast beef on the plate. I used a bit of my own horseradish sauce, which wasn't enough to make the beef good. My wife (a.k.a. "Turkey") couldn't even finish hers. The leftovers of the beef went straight into the trash. A rare thing for me to do. I almost never throw food away, but I couldn't see another answer.

Result & Conclusions
DON'T BUY THE ROAST BEEF! I wish I could find the chef who inspired this. They need to have their chef's hat and coat removed! The potatoes are okay, but I would try a better brand and add my other ingredients to them.